xp system freezing and has other problems

The system was working fine for a long time.

The system is very slow and randomly freezes. I have run malwarebytes on it and cleaned up some malware but it still reports errors.

Attempts to go into safe mode are stopped by a message that windows prevented the boot to prevent damage to the system with error 7e. It boots normally into xp sp3.

I was thinking of running chkdsk without repair to see if the hard disk reports errors. If it does, I am thinking of saving it and then trying to a chkdsk /r.

What is the likely cause of the problem?
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dovidfCEOAsked:
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akahanConnect With a Mentor Commented:
The malware you had may have damaged some system files, which malwarebytes won't repair...it just gets rid of the infection.

I would try chkdsk /r , and then sfc /scannow

The latter is 'system file check,' which will check the integrity of your system files, and replace any that have been modified.  You'll need your Windows XP CD, in case it needs to fetch any files off of it.
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jdwheeler1981Connect With a Mentor Commented:
Go into task manager and check available physical memory.  Then I would use the system configuration utility by going to run and typing msconfig and I would disable all startup items.  This will have no negative impact on your system for troubleshooting purposes.  After turning them off restart the computer.  Then check the available physical memory, it should be a larger amount available to run applications now.  Now go back into msconfig and turn back on any essential programs that have to run in the background such as antivirus, wireless keyboard/mouse or anything else that has to run, hope that helps.
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Neil RussellTechnical Development LeadCommented:
Copy off your data and reinstall from scratch. This kind of issue after a virus removal will normally take you lots lots more time to solve, IF you can, than it will take to reinstall everything.
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nobusConnect With a Mentor Commented:
if i suspect a disk, i run a disk diag to know it's status first (note that chkdsk is not a disk diag, but a file system checker)
see how i handle disk problems here : http://www.experts-exchange.com/Storage/Hard_Drives/A_3000-The-bad-hard-disk-problem.html

i also consider it a good way to start troubleshooting by starting a RAM test, that way, i'm sure about the basics

download - make the cd - and boot from it to run all diags you need :
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/                              ultimate boot cd
http://ubcd.mirror.fusa.be/ubcd511.iso                        direct link UBCD


find more options on handling PC problems here, if needed :
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Components/Motherboards/A_1945.html                  (Short-overview-of-how-to-troubleshoot-bad-hardware-when-a-pc-does-not-post)
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Richard SchilkeOnline Marketing and ITCommented:
Thanks nobus I didn't know about UBCD.... Awesome!
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dovidfCEOAuthor Commented:
I've run chkdsk /r since the drive seemed to be ok and it ran through. I killed a task that was eating memory.

However, now it is freezing up in the middle of Internet Explorer and does not respond to anything without a reboot.

The 7e error in safe mode is on the kdcom.dll module.

The system does not seem to boot on a cdrom even though the bios indicates the cdrom as the first boot device.
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akahanCommented:
Did you follow up the chkdsk /r with an sfc /scannow?
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dovidfCEOAuthor Commented:
Yes and it was clean. I ran tdsskiller and it found a rootkit and removed it. I am checking out the system now.
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nobusCommented:
try the minimum setup, as described in
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Components/Motherboards/A_1945.html

it can be the cd drive, or cd media is bad - so can you test with another bootable CD, or another cd drive?
Or test this cd or drive on another PC.

note : chkdsk is not a disk diag- it checks the file system ; so i suggest still to run the disk diag, as suggested
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dovidfCEOAuthor Commented:
I installed process explorer and noticed that the meager memory of around 500 megs was full and there was a task there that was pushing it into virtual memory that wasn't needed. I got rid of that task and the system stays below the max. The cpu usage otherwise was not overly high.

I suspected disk problems due to weird crashes and thought perhaps the program modules were corrupt. I also thought that the slowness could be due to disk errors since I had already ran a Malwarebytes scan to eliminate malware issues. However, scannow and chkdsk indicated that there was no real disk problem.

Reinstalling from scratch was too much of an effort and wasn't yet fully warranted.

Tdsskiller's removal of the rootkit has the system performing normally and that seems to have been the problem all along.

I haven't rechecked on the kdcom 7e error but it can be corrected by going into the repair console and entering disable intelppm
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nobusCommented:
why don't you run the diask diag, as sugggested?  i pointed out that chkdsk is NOT a disk diag
but it's your choice..
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dovidfCEOAuthor Commented:
There is not enough evidence of a disk problem and too much work to strip the system down for a test.
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dovidfCEOAuthor Commented:
Tdsskiller removed the rootkit and solved the problem
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